Working with original assets

Working with original assets

Note: This feature is only available through the Portfolio Desktop client.

You can use Portfolio Desktop to access and work with original asset files.

In order to work with originals, you need to have direct access to them from your workstation. This means the root volume containing the original asset, as it was cataloged in Portfolio, must be mounted as a drive on your computer.

For Vault catalogs, Portfolio stores the assets in a custom, private location. Portfolio Desktop accesses this location by mounting the Vault as a read-only volume. When you perform actions on original assets, Portfolio will copy them from this volume to your local computer.

Your Portfolio account also needs to have permission to Access and Process Originals; see your Portfolio administrator to confirm that you have this permission.

There are four related activities you can do with original assets:

  • Open original: Right-click an asset and choose Open from the shortcut menu. It will open in whatever application is set as the default for opening that type of file. If you do not have an application that will open the file, your operating system will prompt you about what to do.

  • Drag a copy: Drag a thumbnail to the desktop or other location to copy the original asset to that location. (Changes made to this copy of the asset do not impact the cataloged asset in Portfolio.)

  • Place in document: Drag a thumbnail to an open document to place the asset in the document. In most cases, the asset will be placed as a linked resource, rather than an embedded resource. A linked resource is a reference to the original asset on disk, and any changes made to the original are reflected in the document. An embedded resource is a copy of the original asset, completely contained in the body of your document.

  • Show original: Right click on an asset and choose Reveal in Finder or Reveal in Explorer from the shortcut menu. This will display the original asset file in the macOS Finder or Windows Explorer.

You can perform these tasks on one asset at a time or on multiple assets that you have selected.

When you drag an asset from Portfolio Desktop, it will pause for a moment at the edge of the Portfolio Desktop window. After a moment your mouse cursor will change to let you know that you can complete the operation.

Placing an asset in a document

When you drag a thumbnail from Portfolio Desktop into a document window, Portfolio Desktop will attempt to create a link within your document to the original asset.

If you do not have the Access and Process Originals permission, or if the volume containing the cataloged asset is not mounted on your system, a link to the original image will not be created.

You can drag the following file types from Portfolio Desktop into a document:

  • .AI (Adobe Illustrator)

  • .DOC/.DOCX (Microsoft Word)

  • .GIF (Graphic Interchange Format bitmap image)

  • .JPG/.JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group bitmap image)

  • .PDF (Portable Document Format created by Adobe Acrobat and other applications)

  • .PNG (Portable Network Graphic bitmap image)

  • .PSD (Adobe Photoshop)

  • .TIF/.TIFF (Tagged Interchange File Format bitmap image)

  • .XLS/.XLSX (Microsoft Excel)

Supported applications include:

  • Adobe Illustrator (CS 6 and later, Mac and Windows)

  • Adobe InDesign (CS 6 and later, Mac and Windows)

  • Adobe Photoshop (CS 6 and later, Mac and Windows)

  • Keynote (Mac)

  • Microsoft Excel (Mac and Windows)

  • Microsoft Outlook 2010 (Windows)

  • Microsoft Outlook 2011 (Mac)

  • Microsoft PowerPoint (Mac and Windows)

  • Microsoft Word (Mac and Windows)

Many other applications (such as QuarkXPress and Apple Pages) support drag-and-drop and so should work with assets dragged directly from Portfolio Desktop.

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